Perhaps Apple want Snow Leopard finished and preinstalled onto the new 4-core family of consumer Macs and who knows, 16-core Mac pro's? coming out in Q1. Who knows what lies behind an early release. It could be hardware driven.
Perhaps Apple want Snow Leopard finished and preinstalled onto the new 4-core family of consumer Macs and who knows, 16-core Mac pro's? coming out in Q1. Who knows what lies behind an early release. It could be hardware driven.
No 8-core Nehalems are due for Q1.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenRoethig
That and its just another flavor of leopard.
As for big cat names, they still have cougar and lion among others.
Since only specific core pieces are changing in Snow Leopard, every point release on Leopard (10.5) counts as QA for Snow Leopard !!! So, YES, we are all currently testing the crap out it !!
God I hope not. Changes were made between 10.4 and 10.5 that were a huge step backwards. If Apple isn't planning to fix that in 10.6 then I have little hope for the future of the OS.
Snow Leopard should be different enough, in fundamental ways, for any testing of Leopard to be completely irrelevant.
I hope Snow Leopard doesn't ship until at least WWDC. Otherwise I fear we'll already be at 10.6.2 by then.
I guess this opens up the door for introducing a tablet at MWSF 09. I certainly hope so.
A more touch-based UI, would explain the limited external testing. Apple would want to keep it secret.
/Daniel
remember this is NOT a feature release. It has nothing to do with tablets or multitouch.
Likely, the only "new" features to make the light of day will be ones that have already been spoken about, and slipped into the 10.5 release, but as a developer only function, such as RI, and ZFS, to mention the biggest, with no guarantee that either will be there.
I do believe there will be a surprise or two behiind Snow Leopard but keep in mind that MS just announced a few weeks ago the time frame they were looking to release Windows 7. This was a much earlier time frame than what was previously considered. Apple has alot of momentum right now and if the public perceives that MS is getting itself together, then Apple's momentum grinds to a halt.
I'm expecting also to see a true OSX based netbook next year. Some of the changes in SL make sense with this in reducing the size and increasing performance. This is an area that Vista cannot touch yet Windows 7 can. Of course not to mention that it is a hot market that is greater than what SJ alluded to when he stated they were watching it.
Of course all of this does not mean that it will be as bug free as it should be for an initial release if brought out in the first qtr. Just as Vista was criticized for being released too early so was Leopard. If Apple feels that it was good enough for the general public and non-techies then it's probably going to be released.
All in all I also don't see Apple targeting too many users to upgrade. This release I believe is going to be more about selling hardware...moreso than in the past.
Just my 3 cents of course.
One other thing has anyone noticed in the Sunday flyers now that Apple is the company showcasing how fast their systems are while HP and others do not mention clockspeeds? I'm wondering now if Apple is looking to exploit these other companies now with their focus on performance. We've read and heard about the focus on perf improvements in SL, we've seen the laptops bumped up a bit thanks to nvidia, and now Apple is the only one mentioning clockspeeds in ads.
Get it right the first time and Windows 7 be damned. WWDC in June is about right.
Get it out too soon with too many bugs, and Microsoft will be all over it in their advertising. I believe that the current Leopard will be just as good as Windows 7 anyway, and to bring out Snow Leopard in June is still ahead of Windows 7. Apple should not rush this, even for hardware sake. Make the hardware capable of using Snow Leopard to the full, but keep the release at the proper time and make it right.
And Snow Leopard is the perfect name - a cleaner working version of Leopard.
Since only specific core pieces are changing in Snow Leopard, every point release on Leopard (10.5) counts as QA for Snow Leopard !!! So, YES, we are all currently testing the crap out it !!
The scientific community is drooling all over Snow Leopard. Why do you think Apple showed them the release schedule. I read an article yesterday which was a mini interview with two members of the Kronos standards group and they stated that the standard was now complete!! There is still a 30 day legal review to do but it is done. It only took 6 months !!! For a standards committee to do that is amazing and it was Apple that put the carrot out for them.
The OS X release schedule was likely shown at the same conference that the Kronos group had their OpenCL "launch party".
Thank you for the link - maybe the long lead time (towards the end of 2009) was based on the idea of OpenCL standardisation taking longer than expected. Oh well, what ever the case maybe, I'm definately going to upgrade to Snow Leopard + iLife + iWorks when they're all updated
Since Apple doesn't have too many new features planned for Snow Leopard, a lot of the work that usually goes into polishing all of the many new OS X features is absent this go 'round. While I would like it to be bullet proof on launch, who's to say that Apple doesn't already have much of this nailed down already? I can totally see Apple launching Snow Leopard on Saturday, March 28th, 2009.
Finder is getting rewritten in Cocoa, right? And most other Apple apps are already in Cocoa now, right?
What if....Apple enabled Cocoa to use OpenCL behind the scenes!!!!!!! You write in Cocoa and the Cocoa components are tapping OpenCL making everything insanely...SNAPPIER!
Seriously though, do you know what kind of performance increase that would make for all Cocoa apps???? Windows 7 would have nothing on that!
I like how people always say noooo, develop OS X slower. How do people know how many issues need fixed and optimized and how long they will take? The presentation shows that the Leopard -> Snow Leopard period is 14+ months and some other major releases took this long. 6 releases in 8 years = 16 month average cycle.
Look at Microsoft's efforts. Taking longer doesn't guarantee a better product. Longer times mean that people lose focus on the task.
The focus with Snow Leopard is optimization, possibly removing PPC stuff and compiling for 64-bit. Just because some stuff sounds complicated doesn't mean it takes longer to implement - it's not as if they start working on it as soon as the last version is out the door. The GPU stuff has been going for a while in various incarnations. The multi-threading stuff will take R&D from Xgrid computing and previous multi-threading techniques.
A March release is still 4 months away too. Beta in January, a few betas in Feb, Final version in March.
To be honest, it could have been a typo in the presentation. Q2 is what people were expecting. Nonetheless, I think people should be more open to an early release. It's not as if the people working on it are being given a public deadline and scared that it's not done yet. The release date is not official, right now it's probably a rough target.
Which systems did Apple put out before they were ready? MobileMe perhaps but they know what they are doing most of the time. The simple solution is for Apple to release it when they think it's ready and consumers who know little to nothing of Apple's internal developments who arbitrarily think otherwise can simply wait before using it.
Comments
Uh... http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/
I was about to say.
And why would they change it? Snow Leopard's a cool enough name. And they're running out of good big cat names anyway.
"Hey! You gotta problem with Snow Leopards!?!"
...
As for big cat names, they still have cougar and lion among others.
Perhaps Apple want Snow Leopard finished and preinstalled onto the new 4-core family of consumer Macs and who knows, 16-core Mac pro's? coming out in Q1. Who knows what lies behind an early release. It could be hardware driven.
No 8-core Nehalems are due for Q1.
That and its just another flavor of leopard.
As for big cat names, they still have cougar and lion among others.
Cougar = Puma.
That and its just another flavor of leopard.
As for big cat names, they still have cougar and lion among others.
"OS X 10.6 Cougar." "OS X 10.6 Lion."
Nah. Just doesn't sound as cool somehow.
But you're right, it is mostly just a turbo'd up Leopard... not that anyone will complain. And I think OpenCL is pretty exciting.
Hmm, what's the latest word on res independence and ZFS support making it into Snow Leopard? Yes? No? We don't know?
...
It's found on pages 9, 11, and 12 in the linked PDF file.
Since only specific core pieces are changing in Snow Leopard, every point release on Leopard (10.5) counts as QA for Snow Leopard !!! So, YES, we are all currently testing the crap out it !!
God I hope not. Changes were made between 10.4 and 10.5 that were a huge step backwards. If Apple isn't planning to fix that in 10.6 then I have little hope for the future of the OS.
Snow Leopard should be different enough, in fundamental ways, for any testing of Leopard to be completely irrelevant.
I hope Snow Leopard doesn't ship until at least WWDC. Otherwise I fear we'll already be at 10.6.2 by then.
If that's fiscal Q1 2009, then that's Oct-Dec 2008.
Not even close to being possible.
I'm thinking that even March is too close.
Unless they've made major strides which haven't been reflected in beta releases, I'd rather see them wait until the ADC.
This release is all about QA, and speed. Let's make sure that's what actually comes out.
Apple can't afford to trumpet this, and then have a buggy release.
I guess this opens up the door for introducing a tablet at MWSF 09. I certainly hope so.
A more touch-based UI, would explain the limited external testing. Apple would want to keep it secret.
/Daniel
remember this is NOT a feature release. It has nothing to do with tablets or multitouch.
Likely, the only "new" features to make the light of day will be ones that have already been spoken about, and slipped into the 10.5 release, but as a developer only function, such as RI, and ZFS, to mention the biggest, with no guarantee that either will be there.
I'm expecting also to see a true OSX based netbook next year. Some of the changes in SL make sense with this in reducing the size and increasing performance. This is an area that Vista cannot touch yet Windows 7 can. Of course not to mention that it is a hot market that is greater than what SJ alluded to when he stated they were watching it.
Of course all of this does not mean that it will be as bug free as it should be for an initial release if brought out in the first qtr. Just as Vista was criticized for being released too early so was Leopard. If Apple feels that it was good enough for the general public and non-techies then it's probably going to be released.
All in all I also don't see Apple targeting too many users to upgrade. This release I believe is going to be more about selling hardware...moreso than in the past.
Just my 3 cents of course.
One other thing has anyone noticed in the Sunday flyers now that Apple is the company showcasing how fast their systems are while HP and others do not mention clockspeeds? I'm wondering now if Apple is looking to exploit these other companies now with their focus on performance. We've read and heard about the focus on perf improvements in SL, we've seen the laptops bumped up a bit thanks to nvidia, and now Apple is the only one mentioning clockspeeds in ads.
Just something I noticed this last weekend.
Lwmlaf??
http://twitter.com/mkalmes/statuses/1013395222
For those who don't want to click the link:
Lwmlaf = Level Windows Makes Laughable Attempts at Following
Get it out too soon with too many bugs, and Microsoft will be all over it in their advertising. I believe that the current Leopard will be just as good as Windows 7 anyway, and to bring out Snow Leopard in June is still ahead of Windows 7. Apple should not rush this, even for hardware sake. Make the hardware capable of using Snow Leopard to the full, but keep the release at the proper time and make it right.
And Snow Leopard is the perfect name - a cleaner working version of Leopard.
Greg
remember this is NOT a feature release.
You state that like a fact. At this point, I think we're all just speculating.
SL can be whatever Apple wants it to be.
/Daniel
Since only specific core pieces are changing in Snow Leopard, every point release on Leopard (10.5) counts as QA for Snow Leopard !!! So, YES, we are all currently testing the crap out it !!
The scientific community is drooling all over Snow Leopard. Why do you think Apple showed them the release schedule. I read an article yesterday which was a mini interview with two members of the Kronos standards group and they stated that the standard was now complete!! There is still a 30 day legal review to do but it is done. It only took 6 months !!! For a standards committee to do that is amazing and it was Apple that put the carrot out for them.
The OS X release schedule was likely shown at the same conference that the Kronos group had their OpenCL "launch party".
http://www.macworld.com/article/136921/opencl.html
Thank you for the link - maybe the long lead time (towards the end of 2009) was based on the idea of OpenCL standardisation taking longer than expected. Oh well, what ever the case maybe, I'm definately going to upgrade to Snow Leopard + iLife + iWorks when they're all updated
Anyone else think it's unusual that 10.6 doesn't say "Snow Leopard" next to it when all the other releases have their nicknames?
Name change coming?
Agreed on the QA. Imagine if APPL releases Snow Leopard and it works, say, like Vista.
Can you imagine the headlines: Snow Leopard or SLOW Leopard?
Or, Snow Leopard - The New Vista!
Agreed on the QA. Imagine if APPL releases Snow Leopard and it works, say, like Vista.
Can you imagine the headlines: Snow Leopard or SLOW Leopard?
Or, Snow Leopard - The New Vista!
'Blow Leopard'?
...
Finder is getting rewritten in Cocoa, right? And most other Apple apps are already in Cocoa now, right?
What if....Apple enabled Cocoa to use OpenCL behind the scenes!!!!!!! You write in Cocoa and the Cocoa components are tapping OpenCL making everything insanely...SNAPPIER!
Seriously though, do you know what kind of performance increase that would make for all Cocoa apps???? Windows 7 would have nothing on that!
Look at Microsoft's efforts. Taking longer doesn't guarantee a better product. Longer times mean that people lose focus on the task.
The focus with Snow Leopard is optimization, possibly removing PPC stuff and compiling for 64-bit. Just because some stuff sounds complicated doesn't mean it takes longer to implement - it's not as if they start working on it as soon as the last version is out the door. The GPU stuff has been going for a while in various incarnations. The multi-threading stuff will take R&D from Xgrid computing and previous multi-threading techniques.
A March release is still 4 months away too. Beta in January, a few betas in Feb, Final version in March.
To be honest, it could have been a typo in the presentation. Q2 is what people were expecting. Nonetheless, I think people should be more open to an early release. It's not as if the people working on it are being given a public deadline and scared that it's not done yet. The release date is not official, right now it's probably a rough target.
Which systems did Apple put out before they were ready? MobileMe perhaps but they know what they are doing most of the time. The simple solution is for Apple to release it when they think it's ready and consumers who know little to nothing of Apple's internal developments who arbitrarily think otherwise can simply wait before using it.
From what I've seen of SL, their is no way that SL will be ready in calender Q1.
People bitch about Apple not offering up a roadmap, too.
Beta releases to Premier Developers are always dozens of releases behind internal builds.